Première parution : Jean-Yves Camus, « Xenophobia and Radicalism in France« , European International Tolerance Center,Xenophobia, Radicalism and Hate crime in Europe 2016, 2017 .
1. Changes in Legislation
The
problem with legislation on minorities is that they are not recognized
as such, so there is very seldom a law that is passed on this specific
issue. Nevertheless, there are laws dealing with what the French call
« diversity » and which aim at enhancing the rights of people from an
immigrant background or who originate from our overseas territories. One
such piece of legislation was the Loi Egalité et Citoyenneté, which was
passed on 22 December 20161.
The purpose of this law was to make French society more inclusive and
more cohesive, in the aftermath of the 2015 and 2016 terrorist attacks.
Chapter one of the law provided for the creation of a volunteer corps of
citizens who are willing to perform duties such as helping
schoolchildren to master the French language and learn the basics of the
French Civil Rights legislation, as well as the basics of what being a
French citizen means and implies. What we call the « Civic Service »2,
that is a volunteer corps of youth aged below 25 who are willing to
help in social services, NGOs, or the administration, has been opened to
foreigners residing legally in France and to refugees as well. Chapter
two deals with subsidiarized housing, which in France is often the only
way migrant families and those with an immigrant background, with a
lower than average income can find a decent place to live in, especially
in the big cities3.
From now on, 25% of the flats that are allocated by the State or the
local authorities will have to be rented to those with the lowest income
or who are in a dire situation of urgency. The law also provides that
those residents who are eligible to settle in subsidiarized housing be
scattered in each and every district of the cities, in order to avoid
forming urban ghettos. It is also provided that from now on, those who
need to learn French, or perfectionate their use of French, will be
allowed to do so within the frame of adult professionnal training that
is, with financing from their employer. A State Agency is to be set up4,
the duty of which is to provide the basics of learning French to those
who, whether they are residents or arrive in France, need to master our
language in order to find a job and insert into French society. Also,
racial discrimination or incitement to hatred is now punishable by a 1
year prison sentence and a 45,000 euros fine. Before the law was passed,
that was a 6 months sentence and a 22,500 euros fine. All crimes will
now be punished more harshly if it was committed with the aggravating
circumstance of inciting to racial hatred or homophobia. Discrimination
on the job market and on the work place is to be fought by a
communications campaign
2. Changes in the Law enforcement practice
The practice of Law Enforcement
has changed since the State of Emergency was proclaimed by
then-President François Hollande, the day following the massive
terrorist attack of 13 November 20155. The state of emergency
measures are set out in a 1955 law and are designed to be used in
“cases of imminent danger resulting from serious breaches of public
order, or in case of events threatening, by their nature and gravity,
public disaster”.
The measures give a number of exceptional
powers to the authorities, including the right to set curfews, limit the
movement of people and forbid mass gatherings, establish secure zones
where people can be monitored and close public spaces such as theatres,
bars, museums and other meeting places.
The state of emergency
also gives more powers to the security services and police, such as the
right to conduct house searches at any time without judicial oversight,
enforce house arrest and confiscate certain classes of weapons, even if
people hold them legally. A state of emergency can be put in place by
the French
president for a maximum of 12 days, after which he must get
parliamentary approval for an extension. Parliament approved the
extension of the State Emergency three times before the Soccer Euro
Championship which took place in France in June 2016 and was considered a
possible target for another ISIS or al Qaeda-sponsored attack. When
there were plans to lift it, the Nice terror attack took place on 14
July and it was extended up to this day. As a consequence, all
demonstrations which are staged since 2013, and all public events, are
dealt with more police presence and the use of defensive grenades by the
Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) have been widely criticized
by Left-wing parties and NGOs, at the time when trade unions
demonstrated in 2016 against the so-called El Khomri law on the reform
of the Code of Labour.
However, the State of Emergency is
aimed at preventing the spread of Radical Islam: it has enabled the
Intelligence Services to search and raid the homes of 4500 suspected
activists in 2016-2017; more than 700 suspects have been asked by police
not to move from their town and report daily or once a week; about 30
Radical Mosques have been closed on suspicion of inciting people to
fight the Jihad. The Opération Sentinelle6,
which began after the 2015 attacks, adds more than 10,000 professional
soldiers to the civilian Police force in taking care of the terrorist
threat. Soldiers are deployed on street patrols and also have the task
of protecting synagogues, Jewish communal buildings, major Christian
sites and various Muslim gatherings or personalities that are considered
as being under threat from the Radicals. Opération Sentinelle was
reconducted in 2016.
One specific change in Law
Enforcement practice is that according to a 3 June 2016 Law, the
legitimate use of weapons by police officers in a shot-to-kill intention
also applies to cases where the officer thinks a terrorist can open
fire with the intent to kill. When on 13 June 2016 a couple of police
officers were murdered at their home by an Islamic terrorist, a
controversy erupted within police trade unions as to whether the safety
of off-duty police officers was sufficient, whether they were trained
enough to shooting and whether they should be allowed to carry their gun
all the time when off-duty. Soldiers serving with Opération Sentinelle
are also concerned with their safety when off-duty and have been
targeted by terrorists when on duty: on 1 January 2016 in Valence, 29
years-old Raouf El Ayeb, from Tunisia, drove
his car into a group of soldiers who were protecting the local mosque.
He made no victims and was arrested7.
Outside of the scope of the State
of Emergency, there remain problems of institutional Racism which have
been addressed for decades by NGOs such as SOS-Racisme, LICRA, Ligue des
Droits de l’Homme and MRAP. Discrimination in housing, on the labor
market, in education and other fields where the State is an actor, still
exist, although they are illegal. In 2016 for the second time in
history, a public housing company has been sentenced by the courts for
discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin8.
In the public school system, representatives of the Jewish Community
have repeatedly told the authorities that in several areas of the
country, whether it be Paris and its suburbs or Lyon and Marseille,
families had to enlist their children in Jewish schools because
Antisemitism was rampant, not because of the teachers and
administration, but because of anti-Jewish slurs from non-Jewish pupils
and safety issues and the children’s way to and from schools9.
On the other hand, some Muslim organizations and Civil Rights NGOs
continue to oppose the ban on the hijab in public schools and have
opposed Manuel Vall’s idea of banning the hijab in Universities10.
The basic reasoning for making a difference between schools and
universities is that university students are aged more than 18 ( with a
few exceptions), so they are adults whose civil rights would be
infringed by the ban, while minors under 18 should be protected from
adults who can force them to wear the veil against their will. The major
problem of institutional racism remains that of racial prejudices in
the Police, whether it be ethnic profiling, uneccesary identity checks
targeting coloured people and minorities or physical violence used by
police officers against minorities. The problem is acknowledged by the
authorities11, who have introduced courses on Racism in the curriculum of Police officers, but further progresses have yet to be achieved.
3. French government rhetoric in 2016 in terms of minoritie
As said before, the notion of
“minorities” does not legally exist in France. It is estimated that
there are between 400, 000 and half a million Jews and a 2016 Pew
Research survey gave an estimate of Muslims representing 7,5% of a
population of 66 million ( that is, 4,7 million)12.
Given the non-recognition of minorities, the government has to use such
words as “people from a Muslim background” when speaking about people
who are often the second or third generation of French citizens with a
Muslim background. With the terrorist attacks of 2015-2016, immigration
and Islam have become central topics in the political discourse. On
August 1, 2016, just after a terrorist had killed a Catholic priest near
Rouen, then Prime Minister Manuel Valls published an op-ed on Islam in
France in the Journal du Dimanche13.
A proponent of a sound secularist
policy, Valls was criticized for writing that “Islam has to help the
French State if it wants the State to protect it as a religion”. The
controversy with Muslim organizations is that according to them, the
terrorists are not acting on behalf of Islam but on behalf of a deviant
ideology that is not Islam. On the other hand, the Valls government and
the Conservative opposition have repeatedly pointed to the
uneffectiveness of the CFCM, the central body of Muslim organizations,
in reaching out to the core of the Muslim community in order to prevent
radicalism. Therefore in December 2016, the Government launched the
Fondation pour l’Islam de France14,
a registered charity headed by former Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement,
the aim of which will be to train imams in the French language and
culture, with the intent of reducing the influence of Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia and Turkey, which for the moment retain an enormous influence
over their populations living in France, through the appointment of
imams and the financing of mosques. This situation tends to make the
French population think that Muslims are not their fellow citizens, but
agents of foreign countries whose loyalty to France can be questioned.
The same problem was faced by the Government when it tried to pass
legislation that would have authorized stripping a bi-national terrorist
of his French citizenship.
When it comes to the Jewish
communities, the relationship with the State was particularly good under
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who very severely condemned the Boycott
Israel campaign15 and holds the belief that Anti-Zionism is the contemporary form of Anti-Semitism16.
The lay organization of French Jewry (CRIF) as well as the Chief
Rabbinate and non-Orthodox communities, enjoy a good working
relationship with the State, whose officials attend all commemorations
including the very exclusive annual dinner of CRIF, which the President
usually attends ( in 2016 he was replaced by the Prime minister, being
retained in Brussels by a summit with Turkey).
A new concern for the State is the
situation of the Chinese community, which is half a million strong and
retains very close ties with the P.R. of China. After a Chinese man
working in the garment industry was killed in Aubervilliers in August
2016, the Chinese community demonstrated on the streets with several
thousand people17.
The number of burglaries and assaults targeting Chinese shopkeepers and
workers of the clothing industry has sky-rocketed in Paris and its
suburbs, with the prejudice being spread that Chinese people make high
gains in their businesses and always use cash money, thus becoming
targets. The local authorities in Aubervilliers and Paris are supportive
of the Chinese population’s call for a widespread campaign against this
new form of Racism.
4. Public opinion towards minorities. Level of anti-immigration sentiments, national and religious phobias and attitudes towards other minority groups.
According to the annual report of the CNCDH18,
tolerance is on the rise in France, with 64% of the French being
tolerant of minorities, the highest level being 66% in 2008. 52% of the
French say they are not racist (43% in 2014) and 33% (+8%) do not
believe in the existence of races. Only 8% say that there are “superior
races”. Negative stereotypes still exist, though. In the aftermath of
the terrorist attacks, the report concludes that 34% of the French think
that Islam is a problem and 50% think it is a threat to national
security. The Roma have a negative image with 57% of ther French, who
say they are unwilling to assimilate, but there is an improvement when
compared to 77% in 2014. Prejudices against the Jews remain: 20% think
they have too much power in politics and 20% associate being a Jew with
having money. With regard to immigration, 59% think there are too many
immigrants but on the other hand, 79% say that they should be allowed to
stay and feel like home, because they contribute positively to the
French economy. As much puzzling is the fact that 60% think that the
immigrants come with the intent of taking benefits from the Welfare
State, but 68% say that their presence is positive because it brings
cultural diversity. Terrorism has become the main concern of 18% of the
French, compared to 22% who think the major topic is unemployment. One
consequence of this concern is that the French are ready to sacrifice
some of their civil liberties in exchange for more security. For
exemple, 88% of those surveyed agree with the proposal of the
Conservative parties that the State should be able to detain any suspect
of involvement in terrorist activity, even when there are no charges
against him. There has been an ongoing debate in 2016 on the topic of
changing the law, so that the 15,000 individuals who have an
intelligence file for their suspected support of Radical Islam, could be
detained in specific camps. The Left parties have consistently opposed
this legislative move.
According to an opinion poll conducted by the Odoxa Institute for Le Parisien daily in March 201619,
the Catholic Church has a negative image for 56% of the French. 83% say
the Church is too conservative, and 64% think that it does not take
into consideration the daily problems of the citizens. However this
survey was conducted in the aftermath of a scandal, when several former
young laymen accused some priests of pedophilia, and sued the Bishop of
Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin, for not having reported what he knew to the
police ( he was later considered not guilty). It is to be noted that at
the end of 2016, the newspaper Famille chrétienne
asked IFOP institute to survey church-going Catholics and their
political leanings: 49% intended to vote for François Fillon, the
mainstream Conservative candidate to the 2017 Presidential election, but
25% intended to vote for Marine Le Pen, the Extreme-Right candidate20.
5. Radicals
Radical Parties that are registered and incite to hatred are very few, if only because the 1990 Loi Gayssot21
puts a ban on any kind of expression of, or incitement to hatred,
including denying the Holocaust. Strictly speaking, the Front National,
which in December 2015 took 28% of the national vote in the Regional
elections22
and continued to be a potent force in 2016, does not incite to hatred.
Its proposal is to ban further legal immigration from outside Europe and
it wants to enact a « French First » policy which would give legal
priority to the French citizens over foreigners when it comes to
housing, social benefits, retirements schemes and health care23.
This policy of « National Priority » is contrary to the 1958
Constitution, but FN as a party, takes great care in using words in its
official documents and manifestos, which are not seen as inciting to
hatred. Fringe Extreme-Right movements with a combined membership of no
more than a few thousands do exist, which openly use Racist rhetoric.
They can be Skinhead Neo-Nazi movements such as the French branches of
Hammerskin Nation24 or Blood and Honour25 ; racialist groups such as Terre et Peuple26 and Parti Nationaliste Français27, who stand against the rights of Jews and non-Whites and also want to ban Freemasonry ; one weekly magazine, Rivarol28, which is sold at newstands since 1951 and local groups such as Picard Crew29, White Wolves Klan (WWK)30, Lemovice Crew31
and a few others, which in 2016 have been under strong pressure from
the police, with their top leaders either in prison and indicted (WWK)
or obliged to stop their activities. One hotspot of violence is the city
of Calais, where thousands of illegal immigrants are living in camps
with the hope of crossing the Channel. On 6 February 2016, a
demonstration of the Extreme-Right against immigrants was banned32.
The French branch of the PEGIDA movement, which convened the
demonstration, was only able to bring in around 200 people: it is
absolutely irrelevant.
Islamist radicals who incite to
hatred are mostly Sunni preachers and militants belonging to the Jihadi
wing of the Salafi movement. In 2016 they were said to control around
180 mosques/prayer rooms33,
which can only be close by the administrative authorities if they are
illegally built or occupied, or if the imam is believed to promote or
condone Jihad or Racist/Antisemitic beliefs. In 2016, 17 foreigners who
were suspected of being an imminent threat to national security because
they promoted Jihad were deported to their native countries34.
Such decisions can always be appealed by the person who is deported,
including in the case that he has effectively been deported and wants to
return legally. In the case of French citizens, it is not possible to
deport the person, and it is only on very exceptional ground that he/she
can be stripped of his citizenship. A proposal by then Prime Minister
Manuel Valls to allow terrorists or those fighting alongside terrorist
organizations being striped off their citizenship was presented to
Parliament in February 201635,
with the assent of President Hollande, but with the majority of the
Socialist Party and the rest of the Left opposing this legislation,
because it could create Stateless people. In March 2016 President
Hollande admitted this proposal had split the Left and had to be
withdrawn36.
One of the peculiarities of France, when compared to some countries
like the United Kingdom, is that the radical Muslims belonging to the
salafi/jihadi movement are nor organized into such high-profile groups
as Hizb ut Tahrir or al Muhajiroun, the first of which only made a brief
appearance in France in 1995 and 2009. The reason could be that those
are movements which are rooted in the Middle-East and the Indian
subcontinent, while the overwhelming majority of French Muslims
originate from the Maghreb37.
The major legal groups representing Orthodox Sunni Islam here are in
line with the Muslim Brotherhood’offshots in the Maghreb. They are
gathered under an umbrella organization, the Union des organisations
islamiques de France (UOIF)38,
which enjoyed recognition by the State and sat on the State-sponsored
Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM) until it decided to go its own
way. UOIF has been suspected by its opponents of promoting an agenda
that goes against the French notion of Secularism, and some of the
foreign guest it invited in the past were banned from entering because
they were said to condone Jihad39.
UOIF held two controversial rallies in Lille (February 2016) and Le
Bourget (May 2016). However no foreign guests were banned from entering
France. In 2016 Hani Ramadan, a Swiss citizen and Geneva-based imam, was
banned from entry and several of his conferences in Nîmes and Le Havre (
fall 2016) were not allowed to take place, because of his ambiguous
talk on Jihad and his opposition to gender equality40.
Far-Left political parties do not
call for hatred and are supportive of foreigners’rights, including that
of refugees to settle permanently in France. The Communist Party, the
Trotskyite Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Parti
de Gauche strongly support integration of immigrants, including those
undocumented, whom they believe should be granted legal status41.
The only topic on which the Far-Left has been criticized is that of
suporting the Boycott Israel campaign knwn as BDS. The boycott of
Israel, but not the BDS movement itself, is illegal since a ruling of
the French Higher Court in October 201542.
There is a debate on whether something like “anti-French Racism” does
exist. The latest case we have of a conviction on this count goes back
to June 2015 and it is indeed possible to sentence someone on the ground
that he/she overtly shot racist abuse such as “Dirty French, Dirty
White” ( that was the ground of the 2015 conviction). The debate is
going on, as to whether “anti-French racism” is downplayed in State
statistics and not sufficiently taken into account by anti-Racist NGOs.
In a landmark case, on 29 March 2016, the anti-Racist NGO, Ligue
international contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme” (LICRA) won its case
against a Muslim man of Turkish origin who had insulted a French White
national aboard a train near Lyon43. Small Leftist groups such as the Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR)44,
are increasingly under the spotlight for their will to categorize all
those with an immigrant, non-european background, as a separate category
within the Nation-State. In March 2016 Houria Bouteldja, the iconic
leader of PIR, published an essay, Les Blancs, les Juifs et Nous
(La Fabrique éditions), in which she asked White people to renounce
their whiteness, while she also asked the Jews to renounce Zionism and
their link to Israël45.
Her contention is that the descendants of the former colonized people
have the right to organize themselves separately, including by staging
events which are forbidden to “whites”.
The Front national is opposed by
the successive governments from the Conservative Right and the Left.
Although President Hollande was not allowed to directly criticize FN,
his warning against “Populism” during his Bastille Day 2016 speech was a
clear warning before the 2017 elections year46. Prime Minister Manuel Valls was more outspoken and on 11 December 2015, warned that the FN “could lead to civil war”47.
As late as in November 2016, he also warned that Marine Le Pen was in a
position to win the Presidential election. What caused several
Left-wing intellectuals from the Radical Left, as well as some NGOs, to
pretend that the Government was playing the game of the Right-Wing
Radicals is the extension of the State of Emergency and the proposed
legislation to strip convicted terrorists of their French citizenship. A
March 2016 petition to stop the State of Emergency48
(argued that the Government was using the attacks in order to curtail
civil liberties and bring in a “government of fear”. A poll conducted in
July, after the Nice attack, however confirmed that 76% of the French
were in favor of the State of Emergency49. In January 2016, the proposed legislation on French nationality had the support of 75%50,
despite calls from the Left, including Justice Minister Christiane
Taubira, to drop the intended text. Taubira resigned from the Cabinet.
Several NGOs such as the Muslim
CCIF or the Left-Wing Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, have attacked the ban
on the Muslim swimsuit known as “burkini”, which was enacted by some 30
mayors, most of them Conservatives, during the summer of 201651.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls was criticized for having expressed his
view that the burkini was a mean to restrict Women’s Rights52.
The ban was edicted by the mayors because they saw the swimsuit as a
threat to public order. But the higher French administrative
jurisdiction, the Conseil d’Etat, suspended or cancelled most of the
bans, on the ground that public order was not at stake and that
secularism was not intended to decide what kind of garb people are
authorized to wear, as long as it is not the full-face veil, which has
been banned by law in 200453.
The popularity of Radical Parties
at the beginning of 2016 can be asserted by the results of the Regional
elections held on 6 and 13 december 2015. The FN polled 6, 82 million
votes nationwide, that is 27%. The Left Front, led by Jean-Luc
Mélenchon, got 541,409 votes, that is 2,49% and the Communist Party had
337,390 ( 1,5%). 2016 was a year without elections, but we can compare
with opinion polls that were conducted at the start of the Presidential
campaign. Two opinion polls were conducted at the end of November 2016,
that is after the primary election of the Right and before that of the
Socialist Party. At that time, François Fillon was ahead of Marine Le
Pen with 27% and 24% respectively54.
It was nevertheless clear that Le Pen would stand on the second round
of the election. Left-Wing candidate Mélenchon was credited with 13%
while the two Trotskyite candidates, Nathalie Arthaud and Philippe
Poutou, got 1% each. Later on, Fillon’s campaign was marred by
allegations that he had illegally used public money, and he ultimately
failed to qualify for the second round, receiving 19%. Le Pen received
23,9% on voting day and Mélenchon was the big surprise with 19,58%55.
The Kantar-TNS Institute issues an annual survey of the image of FN56.
The February 2016 survey shows that 31% of the French agree with the
party’s ideas ( -2% when compared to 2015). This approval rate sinks to
26% on the Frexit topic and only 24% agree that foreigners should have
lesser social rights than nationals. Moreover, 56% of the French ( +2%
when compared to 2015), see FN as “a threat to democracy”, an all-time
high since Marine Le Pen took the chair in 2011. 23% ( minus 6%) wanted
Le Pen to play a more important role in the future. Only 22% said she
would do well as Head of State, whereas 66% said the opposite.
We have very few means to
adequately measure the support for ISIS/al Qaeda among Muslims in
France, apart from the figure released in December 2015 by DGSI ( the
French Intelligence Agency), that 1923 French citizens were either
fighting in Syria and Irak or had shown the will to leave France to join
ISIS57.
At the end of 2016, as the roll-back of ISIS was under way, the same
sources estimated that around 700 French people remained there58.
The opinion of Muslims on terrorism is not surveyed. Nevertherless, an
IFOP poll conducted in September 2016 for the Liberal think-tank
Institut Montaigne, concluded that 26% of those surveyed said they have a
“stringent” observance of Islam, while 25% said they were
“conservative”. 20% of the men and 28% of the women were in favor of
allowing the full-face veil. 29% said that sharia stands above the laws
of the French Republic. 50% of those aged between 18 and 25 y.o. see
their belief in Islam as a way of opposing French values59.
6. Hate crime
The
Police figures for 2016 is 1125 racist, antisemitic and antimuslim
incidents, that is a 44,7% decrese when compared to 2015. Antisemitic
incidents were 335, antimuslim incidents were 182 and racist incidents (
i.e targeting other communities) were 608. A new trend is
anti-Christian incidents, that is desecrations of cemetaries and
churches: they are on the rise with 949 incidents, only 14 of which were
committed by satanists60.
The
figures from CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewry, match with
those of the authorities. The problem is with antimuslim incidents,
because organisations such as CCIF ( Comité contre l’islamophobie en
France), have a definition of islamophobia which is much broader than
that of the police. In 2016, CCIF recorded 580 incidents, including
discriminatory attiutudes (319), assaults (39), threats (98) and attacks
on mosques (25)61.
The anti-Roma incidents are included in the broader « racism »category.
The
SOS Homophobie NGO recorded 1575 anti-LGBT incidents (+19,5%) but there
is no data as to how many resulted in a complaint being filed. At this
time, we only have the 2015 data on convictions: 2571 individuals were
convicted, most of them getting suspended sentences and/or fines62.
The association’s report, by far the most complete and accurate, seems
to show that the peak in anti-LGBT attitudes peaked in 2013, when a
coalition of Arch-Conservative, pro-Family and pro-Life associations,
supported by a significant part of the mainstream Right and the
Extreme-Right, started demonstrating against the legislation on same-sex
marriage. In September 2016, a survey was commissioned by the
Association des familles homoparentales (ADFH or Association of Same-Sex
Parents). This IFOP survey showed that 62% of the French do not want
the repeal of the law on same-sex marriage63.
According to the same source, 72% of the French now openly admit that
they know homosexuals among their friends/close relations.
Data
on prejudices is measured by the annual report of the Commission
nationale consultative des droits de l’Homme (CNCDH). The 2017 report,
which surveys attitudes in 2016, includes an overall measure of
tolerance towards minorities: 65% of the French are tolerant towards
them, an increase of 10% when compared to 2013. When it comes down to
prejudices towards specific communities, 53% think « there are too many
immigrants »; 38% think that Muslims form a separate group within
society; 25% think the Asian people are also living apart, and 23% they
that of the Jews. The group that has the worst image is the Roma
community ( less than 0,5% of the population): 66% say the Roma are not
intetegrated into French society because they do not want to.
7. Interethnic or religious clashes
There was no violent clash between
ethnic groups as such, the last clash on the streets between Jewish
militants and pro-Palestine demonstrators having taken place in Paris
and Sarcelles in July 201464.
However, despite high-profiled media initiatives aimed at gesturing
goodwill between moderate Muslims and the Jewish community, the level of
distrust between the two groups remain high65.
What remains a quite common occurrence in France are clashes between
ethnic minorities apart from the Jews, and the Police, especially in the
suburbs of the bigger cities. The reason is nearly always the death or
serious injury of a youth of immigrant background during an identity
check by the Police. Such was the case in July 2016 when 24 year-old
Adama Traoré died in Beaumont sur Oise, north-west of Paris, in
circumstances which, according to the police, were that natural death (
the young man had a heart condition) but which in fact seem to have been
caused by asphyxia, as Traoré was subject to the unusual and
unnecessary use of force by the police when he was interrogated66.
The controversy over this case still goes on and various demonstrations
with up to 2,000 people regularly take place in his hometown and in
Paris. Human Rights NGOs have pointed to the fact that immigrant youth
are often subject to undue pressure by the police, only because of their
skin colour, including identity checks which border on harrassment.
The area of France where the
strife between communities is the worst is on the island of Corsica,
where an Independantist movement (part legal, part underground and
violent) is seeking to built a separate State. Clashes took place in
2016 between natives and people of Moroccan descent, in the city of
Bastia and in smaller cities. One incident in Sisco, a seaside resort,
gained national coverage when a Moroccan family whose women wore the
hijab and several dozen locals67. Previously, in April, a Muslim prayer room had been destroyed by fire68 and in the last week of 2015, serious clashes between the police and Muslim youth in Ajaccio69.
The concern with the situation in Corsica is also that some locals
among those who favor separation from France are prejudiced against
people from the mainland, to the extent that the slogan I francesi fora
(« Frenchmen out !)70
is a common graffiti on the island. Another specific situation is that
of the Gipsy people. Clashed between the Gipsy and the police took place
in Moirans (Isère), after two of their people who were detained in a
nearby penitenciary were denied the right to attend the funeral of a
relative71.
In February 2016, other Gypsy people had been sentenced to prison
terms, after they had caused traffic to stop on Highway 1, north of
Paris, as a form of protest against a judge having refused a Gipsy
convict the right to attend a funeral service near Amiens72.
Contrary to the immigrant Roma from the Balkans, the Gipsy people have
been living in France for centuries and number around 250,000, 70,000 of
them living as Travellers, 60,000 as semi-Travellers and the rest
living in permanent housing73.
8. Sports-related Xenophobia.
The problem of skinheads acting as
hooligans has been taken care of as early as the mid-1990s at Paris
Saint-Germain stadium and in other cities74.
There remain, however, small groups of Far-Right, racist supporters in
Lyon, Nice, Lille, among others. Hooligans with a pro-independance,
sometimes anti-Arab and anti-French prejudices, are active in Bastia,
Corsica. In anticipation of the Euro- 2016, the French Soccer Federation
met with representatives of the FARE (Football Against Racism in
Europe)75
in order to prevent Racist incidents during the competition. Although
there remain cases of African or West Indian players being harassed by
racist slurs and monkey-sounds when they are on the field ( as in Bastia
with Italian player Mario Balotelli), the most serious incidents which
took place during the Euro, on June 12,2016 in Marseille, opposed 300
Russian hooligans to as many British hooligans76.
Ten people were arrested and 35 were hurt. Russian nationalist groups
of supporters such as the well-known Orel Butchers and LPDR staff member
Alexandre
Shprygin, who was arrested by the police. While the media has focused on
the Russian hooligans and the possibility that they might have acted
with the support of, or at least the unspoken consent of, the Russian
authorities, they denied the accusations and issued a complaint with the
Ambassador of France to Russia .
In
April 2016, new anti-hooligan legislation has been passed and is known
as Loi Larrivé, from the name of the Conservative MP who first drafted
it77.
It enables soccer clubs to refuse selling tickets to supporters who are
known for their offensive behaviour, even if they are not among those
supporters who are denied access to the stadiums because of a
conviction. Hooligans who are the most violent can be denied access to
the stadiums for up to 2 years, and 3 years in case of a former
interdiction. The authority who can issue the ban is the Préfet, the
State top representative in each Département, the basic administrative
level above the cities.
9. Glorification of Nazism or Nazi collaborators
National-Socialists are part of
the lunatic fringe of the Extreme-Right and no political party, elected
official or Civil Service member is a known public supporter of this
ideology. There are a number of NS websites such as http://www.combat18.wordpress.com; http://franceblanche.tumblr.com; www.suavelos.eu (by Holocaust-denier and Jew-baiter Daniel Conversano) or www.jeune-nation.com.
The most-widely read of the websites with an Antisemitic,
Holocaust-denying content, bordering on Nazi ideology is Alain Soral’s www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr,
which in 2016 ranked among the 30 most widely-read political websites,
with a total of 8,1 million reads that year. Regarding events, there
were a few skinhead concerts, with the most active band, Lemovice,
playing in June and October 2016 and in June at the Winter Fest in
Brazil78.
In November 2016, a huge concert of the Nazi-Metalcore scene took place
in the Provence region and two National-Socialist Black Metal bands, Peste Noire and Baise ma hache, have toured France in 2016, finding a home at the Lyon-based headquarters of the neo-Nazi GUD (Groupe Union Défense), a pub named Le Pavillon Noir79.
Holocaust-deniers are few. The
first generation of them is growing old ( Faurisson turned 88 and Pierre
Guillaume is aged 77) and there are but a few noteworthy activists of
the younger generation. The best known is Vincent Reynouard (1969), who
is currently on the run in the UK, following a 2015 conviction80.
Other noteworthy rabid anti-Semites are Hervé Ryssen (1967) who was
sentenced to two months in jail ( in March 2016), then in September 2016
to a one year non-suspended sentence81. On 21 April 2016 another such figure, Boris Le Lay, received a two years sentence in absentia. He allegedly fled to Japan82.
The Extreme-Right in France mainly
consists of the Front national, founded in 1972. In 2016 it had 2 MPs
and 2 Senators, had 14 elected Mayors, 358 Regional Councillors and 24
members of the European Parliament, two of whom have defected since
2014. As other political parties in France, FN receives public funding,
on the basis of the number of votes it gets in the National elections.
In 2015 (last data available), the party received 4 921 595,30 € un public funding83.
However, there have been reports of financial misdemeanors against the
party. In 2016, two distinct judicial inquiries were pending. One dealt
with a very sophisticated scheme which would have enabled the party to
get more money from the State than the amount that should have been
granted84.
The other one deals with the party employing staff members paid by the
European Parliament without any sufficient proof that they served on the
staff of Euro-MPs. The Parliament gives an estimate of 5 million euros
being unduely paid85.
There have been numerous reports in the press of the FN having received
Russian money. The party has acknowledge having been granted a 9
million euros 2014 loan by the now defunct First Czech-Russian Bank,
whose CEO was Roman Popov. In December 2016, the Russian media reported
that the Control Authority of the Russian banking system was trying to
get reimbursed by FN86.
The daily newspaper Le Monde has published a survey
of the many visits to Russia made by FN officials until the 24 March
2017 meeting between Marine Le Pen and President Putin87.
However, there is no proof that Putin hismelf gave an order to any
Russian bank or company to finance FN. We have shown that the support
given by FN and other small Extreme-Right parties ( such as Parti de la
France, led by Carl Lang) was not because of financial reasons in the
first place but that, on the contrary, FN might have received Russian
financial help because it supports the ideological and geopolitical
claims of the Putin administration on such issues as moral values, the
necessity to weaken the EU, the anexation of Crimea, the Russia-Ukraine
crisis in the Donbass and the necessity to lift sanctions against Russia88.
Since Marine Le Pen was elected as chairperson of the
party in January 2011, she has tried to change the image of the party,
with the goal of attaining power through the electoral process, and
without signing any pact with the mainstream Right. She genuinely wanted
to get rid of the most notoriously neo-Fascist militants in the party
and fired quite a lot of them, including key leaders of the now-banned
Œuvre française. She has also parted ways with her father, Jean-Marie Le
Pen, on the ground that he kept on making allegedly racist and
anti-Jewish remarks. Subsequently, she has banned him from seating on
the party’s Executive Board. Le Pen Sr. Retorted by suing his daughter
in court and won his lawsuit in 201689.Marine
Le Pen has also tried to lure Gay people, and even Jews into joining
the party, by clailing that only FN can protect them from Islamism,
which she says is the new Totalitarianism of this century. She was not
at the forefront of the demonstrations against same-sex marriage.
However, when ir comes to the Jews, her political programme calls for a
ban on ritual slaughter and wearing the kippah on the streets. Despite
those moves towards a more mainstream attitude, the outcome of the 2017
elections show that her party is still perceived as extreme.
10. Persecution of human rights activists
A January 2016 inquiry published
by Human Rights Watch expressed concern that after the State of
Emergency was enacted, 18 people were detained without a serious motive
and several of them have been ill-treated90.
The CCIF gave a figure of 180 Muslim people who reported that they had
been under house arrest, or their home had been searched, without
serious motive91.
Because of the COP 21 summit which was held in Paris in December 2015,
two dozen Left-Wing activists had been targeted by the police, for fear
that they might want to disrupt the event. The sanctions against them
were later lifted. Starting in May 2016, demonstrations against the
reform of the Labour Code were organized by trade unions and Left-Wing
parties on an almost daily basis. Several Left-Wing activists belonging
to the Anarchist, Autonomous Left and the so-called Black Bloks were
targeted by administrative sanctions, for exemple banning them from
attending demos92.
Article 5 of the State of Emergency Law allow the Préfet, in the name
of the State, to take such a step. However when in May, 10 people were
banned from the demos and chose to challenge the decision in court, 9 of
the bans were lifted93.
There have been calls from the FN and even by Manuel Valls to ban
Extreme-Left groups which had engaged into violence against the police
during the Labour Law protests94. There was no action taken.
Conclusion · General recommendations for the accession to international agreements and conventions
The major concern at the end of
2016 is the situation of refugees. During 2016, clashes between police
and migrants continued in Calais after the authorities moved in to
dismantle parts of the refugee camp known as the “Jungle” where
approximately 3,500 people lived95.
Amnesty International rightly pointed out that both the French and UK
governments had to live up to their responsibilities in facilitating
access to asylum proceedings in France and getting visas to the UK for those with family members there96.
The sanitary condition of those still living there, the violent clashes
that often take place between different ethnic groups of migrants and
the danger of clandestine immigrants dying when they try to cross the
Channel through the railway tunnel or in trucks where they are smuggled
by traffickers, needs immediate action. In Paris, although the
municipality opened in November 2016 a shelter home that can cater to
the needs of 400 migrants, there are now around 800 who live outside the
camp, including children97. Unsufficient funding from the State does not allow the City of Paris to accommodate more people.
General recommendations for adjustments to the legal framework.
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe, should be ratified by Parliament.
General recommendations for the executive bodies in the field of enforcement of law and human rights.
It is advisable that, taking into
account the existing terrorist threat, which remains very high, the
Government foresees a way to end with the State of Emergency. A new
Antiterrorist Law has been passed in July 201798,
that would make it possible to exit the State of Emergency next fall.
There is a concern among NGOs that the upcoming legislation will make
house-arrests and home searches legal for an undefinite period of time.
The Passenger Name Record (PNR) legislation
adopted by the European Parliament in 2016, would be extended to travel
agencies and maritime transportation. Eavesdropping on private
communications will be extended. It is essential that the implementation
of the new Law takes into account the necessary control of such
measures in order that civil liberties will prevail.
It is also advisable that the
authorities continue to act against Antisemitism and hatred of the
Muslims, both through education and mora accurately taking into account
Racism and Antisemitism as aggravating circumstances when an attack is
obviously, and even at least partially, motivated by ethnic/religious
prejudice. It is also advisable that even when the State of Emergency is
over, community buildings, schools and events can be protected at a
higher level than before the 2015 attacks.
Provide also new trends or risks that have emerged in 2016 (if any).
The major risk in 2017 and after
is what will become of those people residing in France who have joined
ISIS and who might return with the intent to take action on our soil.
The present situation is that those who have been captured by the Iraqi
forces and who have violated local law will be prosecuted in Iraq and
appear before the local courts. Those who surrender to Allied forces,
including the French, will be repatriated and stand trial here, unless
the Iraqi also want to put them to court for offenses they may have
committed99.
This problem means that the French Government will have to think both
about the intelligence work it must set up so that those former fighters
do not strike in France, and about a more efficient scheme of
reinsertion and desindoctrination for those same people.
Provide recommendations to improve the situation.
It should finally be said that one
of the major problems we face in France is the ban on ethnic and
religious statistics. The debate on this topic has been going on for
years, if not decades, both within Human Rights NGOs, elected officials
and the academia. First of all, even those who are in favor of such
statistics to not want to set up legal categories of ethnic and
religious denominations. What is wanted is that people are authorized to
state where their family comes from and what is their religion, when a
general census of the population is made. All data would be collected on
a voluntary basis. It is understandable that, in the French context of
the Nation-State and Secularism, Civil Rights activists and NGOs such as
SOS-Racisme oppose ethnic statistics. However, one can also argue that
the absence of such statistics enables the Extreme-Right to play with
fears by saying that the country is “swamped” by foreigners and
refugees, or that Muslims are between 15 and 20 million when they are
less than 5 million100.
Notes
2 See the goals and procedures here : http://www.service-civique.gouv.fr/
3 Such housing accounts for 19% of the total number of houses and apartments in the country.
4 See the Government’s November 2016 press release on this topic : http://www.gouvernement.fr/partage/8459-creation-de-l-agence-de-la-langue-francaise-pour-la-cohesion-sociale
5 The Presidential Decree on the State of Emergency : https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000031473404&dateTexte=&categorieLien=id
6 Ministery of Defence communiqué on Opération Sentinelle : http://www.defense.gouv.fr/operations/operations/france/operation-sentinelle/sentinelle-10-000
11 See the CNCDH report on this topic : http://www.cncdh.fr/sites/default/files/161108_avis_pratiques_des_controles_didentite.pdf
15 See his 15 December 2015 declaration here : http://www.lcp.fr/la-politique-en-video/mouvement-bds-manuel-valls-condamne-toutes-les-campagnes-de-boycott-legard-des
16 Report of his 8 March 2016 speech at CRIF annual venue : http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2016/03/07/01002-20160307ARTFIG00395-diner-du-crif-pour-valls-l-antisionisme-est-synonyme-de-l-antisemitisme.php
18 Access to the full 2016 report here : http://www.cncdh.fr/fr/publications/rapport-2016-sur-la-lutte-contre-le-racisme-lantisemitisme-et-la-xenopobie
23 See Le Pen’s Presidential Project (2017) here : http://www.frontnational.com/le-projet-de-marine-le-pen/
24 Link to French branch on the internet : http://www.hammerskins.net/fhs/
28 Website : https://www.rivarol.com/
29 Report of Picard Crew’s first public gathering in April 2016: http://www.thomasjoly.fr/2016/03/succes-de-la-1ere-journee-patriote-du-picard-crew-a-amiens.html
30 January 2017 report of WWK activities on the Antifascist website La Horde : http://lahorde.samizdat.net/2017/01/04/serge-ayoub-encore-dans-une-histoire-de-bourrage-de-crane-de-militants-nationalistes-en-picardie/
31 Link to the official Facebook page of Lemovice, which is the Roman name for the city of Limoges : https://www.facebook.com/lemovice.officiel/
32 See report : http://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/02/06/manifestation-de-pegida-a-calais-l-ex-commandant-de-la-legion-etrangere-arrete_1431565. It is to be noted that 6 February is the date of the 1934 aborted coup of the Extreme-Right against the Republic.
33 A Muslim website with a full list of active French mosques put the figure at 179 in 2017. See: https://muzulmania.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/mosquees-salafistes-en-france/
35 The proposed legislation is here : http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/projets/pl3381.asp
37
The best database of information on immigration and the Muslim
communities is the Trajectoires et Origines survey, by the Institut
national d’études démographiques, a State Agency. Link: http://teo.site.ined.fr/
38 Website : http://www.uoif-online.com/
39 See this article for a 2012 controversy : http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/quatre-predicateurs-musulmans-invites-par-l-uoif-interdits-d-entree-en-france-29-03-2012-1446293_23.php and this article in the Conservative daily Le Figaro, with regard to the 2016 meeting: figaro.fr/vox/societe/2016/05/13/31003-20160513ARTFIG00149-congres-de-l-uoif-sous-couvert-de-deradicalisation-l-appel-au-djihad-arme.php
41 Mélenchon reiterated his position during the 2017 Presidential campaign, see : http://www.bfmtv.com/mediaplayer/video/jean-luc-melenchon-veut-la-regularisation-de-tous-les-travailleurs-sans-papiers-924887.html
44 On this group, one of the few academic articles is: Robine Jérémy, « Les « indigènes de la République » : nation et question postcoloniale. Territoires des enfants de l’immigration et rivalité de pouvoir », Hérodote, 2006/1 (no 120), p. 118-148. DOI : 10.3917/her.120.0118. URL : http://www.cairn.info/revue-herodote-2006-1-page-118.htm
45 For a critic of the book from the point of view of the Social-Democrat-leaning daily Libération, see: http://www.liberation.fr/debats/2016/05/24/la-derive-identitaire-de-houria-bouteldja_1454884
50
See poll :
/data/sondage/sondage_fiche/1793/fichier_bva_-_orange_-_i-tele_-_les_francais_et_la_lutte_antiterroriste_-_janvier_2016ecf3c.pdf
51 Report on the ban and the subsequent rulings of the courts against them : w.lemonde.fr/port-du-voile/article/2016/08/31/les-arretes-anti-burkini-invalides-les-uns-apres-les-autres_4990240_4987696.html
52 Link to his declaration : ancetvinfo.fr/societe/religion/laicite/polemique-sur-le-burkini/arrete-anti-burkini-invalide-pour-manuel-valls-la-decision-du-conseil-d-etat-n-epuise-pas-le-debat_1796891.html
53 See the text of the law in its 2010, updated version : https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000022911670&categorieLien=id
60See then Minister of the Interior Bruno Le Roux commenting the figures: https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Archives/Archives-ministre-de-l-interieur/Archives-Bruno-Le-Roux-decembre-2016-mars-2017/Interventions-du-ministre/Bilan-statistique-2016-des-actes-racistes-antisemites-antimusulmans-et-antichretiens
62 SOS-Homophobie report : https://www.sos-homophobie.org/rapport-annuel-2016
64 Report of the incidents in Sarcelles and Paris respectively : http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/07/22/sarcelles-sous-le-choc-des-violences-antisemites_4461039_3224.html and http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/paris-des-manifestants-pro-palestiniens-tentent-de-s-en-prendre-a-deux-synagogues-13-07-2014-3998677.php
65
A survey by the Conservative-leaning Fondapol Think-tank especially
focused on anti-Jewish prejudices among Orthodox Muslims, but also found
a higher-than-average level of prejudice among supporters of FN. See: http://www.fondapol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CONF2press-Antisemitisme-DOC-6-web11h51.pdf
66 The Traoré case is not closed. For the facts see: http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/fait-divers/violences-dans-le-val-d-oise-apres-la-mort-d-un-homme-arrete_1814471.html
70 The slogan « Arabi fora » is also commonplace, see : http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/corse-arabi-fora-ne-peut-pas-etre-considere-comme-un-slogan-nationaliste_1749157.html
72 e.fr/societe/article/2015/08/29/fusillade-de-roye-des-gens-du-voyage-bloquent-l-a1-dans-le-sens-paris-lille_4739679_3224.html
73 See the 2008 study of Travellers and Roma people in France published by CNCDH: http://www.cncdh.fr/fr/publications/etude-sur-la-situation-des-roms-et-des-gens-du-voyage-en-france. Recent (2015) figures here: http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2015/08/26/01003-20150826ARTFIG00144-gens-du-voyage-roms-des-realites-bien-differentes.php
74 The reference academic research on hooligans is : Hourcade Nicolas, « Hooliganisme : un phénomène pluriel », Revue internationale et stratégique, 2014/2 (n° 94), p. 127-134. DOI : 10.3917/ris.094.0127. URL : http://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-et-strategique-2014-2-page-127.htm
76 On the Marseille incidents : http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/sport/des-hooligans-russes-expulses-de-france_1802002.html
79 Report of 2016 NSBM activity on an Antifascist webzine based in Lyon : https://rebellyon.info/Deux-rassemblements-National-Socialist-17005
82 ce3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/bretagne/finistere/brest/deux-ans-de-prison-ferme-pour-l-ultranationaliste-boris-le-lay-980896.html
88 J. Y. Camus : Le FN et les relations internationales (2016) : https://jean-jaures.org/nos-productions/le-front-national-et-les-relations-internationales
92 See Environmentalists denouncing the ban : http://www.bfmtv.com/societe/cop21-les-militants-ecologistes-denoncent-les-abus-de-l-etat-d-urgence-932603.html
95
The best assessment of the migrant’s situation in France is a Senate
report from Conservative Senator Jacques Legendre and his socialist
colleague, Gaétan Gorce: http://www.senat.fr/rap/r15-795/r15-795-syn.pdf
